A variety of completions, such as electric submersible pumping systems, are deployed in wellbores and at other subterranean locations. Many of these systems are deployed by tubing, such as coiled tubing. Power is provided to the system by a power cable run from, for example, the wellhead to the completion by being banded to the outside of the tubing or installed within the tubing.
In many applications, splicing of the tubing and power cable may be required. However, such splices can be problematic when the power cable is run through the center of the tubing, particularly when the tubing is continuous tubing, such as coiled tubing. Various attempts have been made to provide splices, but generally such splices are designed for short lengths of coiled tubing containing power cable. Other applications utilize splices that exceed the overall diameter of the coiled tubing and are not spoolable on a conventional coiled tubing workover reel.
Additionally, if a coiled tubing connector, such as a dimple-on connector, is used to splice the coiled tubing, conventional power cable splices do not fit through such tubing connectors. If a conventional power cable splice is made, the splice is essentially fixed and allows for little or no absorption of vertical movement of the power cable in the area of the coiled tubing splice. This can result in the power cable splice directly absorbing tensile and compressive loads acting on the power cable.